Also fun: forgetting to pull the darkslide. Not as frustrating as burning the sheet of film for pulling it too early, but it can be its own little hell.

I have also shot empty holders. This is why I tend to mark mine now with what they have in them. Always. As soon as I'm done loading them. And then I erase it when I'm done. And I have separate bags for empty and loaded holders. And those bags are MARKED.

I try to idiot proof as much as possible since I'm, more than not, the idiot.

No idea what's going to happen next, but I'm hoping it involves being wrist deep in chemicals come the weekend.

The way i develope my mammoth plexiglas negatives ànd my 18x24 inch paper contacts is i purchased a 10 foot 2x4 cut it so i had four 30 inch long pieces nailed them to form a cube purchased some 6 mil black plastic from home depot cut the plastic oversize to fill the cube and added my chemicals

Ah yeah, so for the record using a view camera when it's cold is not a lot of fun. I went out today to shoot, it's only -30 C (albeit -40 with the wind chill) but it's really kind of a bad time.

The whole large format idea of taking your time and really composing the shot is totally at odds with the few seconds you have to do anything before your hands freeze. I managed to shoot six sheets of film but made fatal mistakes with two of them from being so rushed. It is really hard to dial in your image as you really only have a couple of seconds under the dark cloth at a time as your breath ices up the ground glass, not to mention it is extremely difficult to operate the controls.

The camera also had some issues, biggest one being that the fine focusing knobs were totally unusable so I could only focus by moving the standards back and forth. I'll have to strip those apart and take all the grease out for winter use. But really it's more of the human problems with the cold that make the process difficult.

I will definitely try again but for the most part I'll stick to medium format for the colder days.

Ah well, thanks for letting us know. Good on ya for trying.
Years ago I was north of the tree line in Quebec in February. It was minus a bajillion. I was trying to take photos with my Nikon. I kept it in my coat between shots, but fumbling to focus with my mitts on was difficult. I managed a couple of shots and then the film snapped when I wound it.

There's always portraits and still life until the weather warms a little.

Developed and contact printed the negatives tonight. A couple of decent efforts but they all suffer from basic exposure and composition errors, none of them I am happy with.

I'll head out with my Fuji 6x9 next time, I can operate much quicker with that camera in the extreme cold as I don't carry my light meter or even focus it much, normally it is Sunny 16 and zone focus. I don't think my Pentax's motor drive would be happy at those temperatures.

Just to update this thread I ended up going with a Jobo Multitank and 2509 reel, I use it on an old unicolor motor base and that seems to work well. I didn't like fishing around in trays with my fingers.

Also I was out shooting at -20 C yesterday and that was much better. The camera controls were still stiff but overall a much happier experience.

I started with a Hasselblad 501 and 60mm Zeiss lens. Within 8 months I added Wista 4x5 with 2 lenses and extras and also a very special Szabad 8x10. And I had no intentions of ever touching LF. Silly me!

In a few days I will be going out shooting with the Wista in Eastern Montana and we've had highs of -3F last few days. Which I bet seems tropical for you. But I will make sure to think of you when I'm cursing at my numb and useless fingers

Aleksandra Miesak

"One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind." - Dorothea Lange